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Study of Coal Ash Sites Finds Extensive Water Contamination
WASHINGTON — A study released on Thursday finds that 39 sites in 21 states where coal-fired power plants dump their coal ash are contaminating water with toxic metals such as arsenic and other pollutants, and that the problem is more extensive than previously estimated.
This image may be the most iconic in recent memory when it comes to coal ash. On Christmas Eve, 2008 a coal ash pond dam broke and sent a wave of toxic coal ash flowing into the town of Kingston, Tennessee. A new report, however, shows that even contained, stored ash can have lead to water contamination and negative health impacts.
The analysis of state pollution data by the
Environmental Integrity Project, the Sierra Club and Earthjustice comes
as the Environmental Protection Agency is considering whether to impose
federally enforceable regulations for the first time. An alternative
option would leave regulation of coal ash disposal up to the states, as
it is now.
The EPA will hold the first of seven nationwide hearings about the proposed regulation Monday in Arlington, Va. A public comment period ends Nov. 19.
The electric power industry is lobbying to keep regulation up to individual states. Environmental groups say the states have failed to protect the public and that the EPA should set a national standard and enforce it.
"This is a huge and very real public health issue for Americans," said the director of the study, Jeff Stant of the Environmental Integrity Project. "Coal ash is putting drinking water around these sites at risk."
EIP is a nonpartisan organization that advocates for enforcement of environmental laws.
"If people ask, is there a problem EPA should address, this report answers, 'Yes' with an exclamation mark," said Lisa Evans, an attorney for the environmental law firm Earthjustice.
Evans said that the state regulation hasn't protected people living near the waste sites from health problems. Many states have allowed the dumps to be built without adequate liners or monitoring and have done little when contamination was discovered, she said.
Of the 39 sites analyzed, 35 had groundwater monitoring wells on the grounds of the waste disposal area. All of them showed concentration of heavy metals such as arsenic and lead that exceeded federal health standards.
The other four had only water monitoring data from rivers or lakes where the waste sites discharged water. Scientists found contamination that damaged aquatic life.
The new report, following a previous study by the environmental groups and EPA's own tally, brings the number of contaminated coal waste sites to 137 in 34 states.
Thursday's report specified the amount of arsenic, cadmium, lead, selenium and other pollutants found at each site. The pollutants are linked to cancer, respiratory diseases and other health and developmental problems.
Most states don't require monitoring of drinking water near the waste sites. The study found five sites where monitoring figures were available, and all of them had some contamination. In four, tests showed problems at one or more drinking-water wells. In Joliet, Ill., where the information was too limited for analysis, at least 18 nearby wells were closed because of boron contamination, the report said.
The U.S. burns more than 1 billion tons of coal a year to generate about half of the nation's electricity. It ends up with at least 125 million tons of coal waste, including ash and the sludge left from scrubbers that remove air pollutants.
Federal enforcement of coal-ash disposal rules would mean classifying the waste as hazardous. Opponents have argued that this would add costs and make it harder to recycle some of the waste to help hold down disposal costs.
The report from the environmental groups said that more than a third of the reused coal ash is for structural fill or to fill up empty mines. The report said those uses could result in water contamination.
ON THE WEB
Report on coal ash contamination at 39 sites
EPA information on coal ash and details of its proposals for future regulation.
23 Comments so far
Show All...Federal enforcement of coal-ash disposal rules would mean classifying the waste as hazardous. Opponents have argued that this would add costs...
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The current business model uses our kidneys to separate the arsenic from the water.
The coal burning companies have found this filtration system to be the most cost-effective and supportive of their bottom line.
LOL.. that is funny !!
Ouch.
I hope to see massive lawsuits, and hopefully ,this krapt will finnally stop.
What gets me is that everybody with any sense at all, knows this has been going on for years, and nobody does anything about it. It amounts to reckless endangerment,and in some cases I bet manslaughter ! These terms I don't take litely ,but if persons dumping this krapt knew it was poisen, and could give Cancer ( possibly resulting in death),then they are being reckless, and if State officals even thought for a second, this could be possible without checking the danger level, then they have surely failed in their jobs to protect their citizens.
I guess just like everything else in America, we don't care who gets hurt, as long as the mighty dollar is making somebody rich. Many of the people that are being poisened, especially in the cases of Natural Gas Fracking ,they rented their own property to these crooks, and made money before realizing they just poisened their whole family. The fact that people would not think this could be dangerous doesn't make sense. Even someone with average intelligence knows that oil, and coal are bad for the enviroment, and all the chemicals they use in the fracking has to say something, people just look at the money and nothing else.
The men that actually make, and do this shit, are just beyond understanding how they can wilfully do harm to so many people, and animals is heart wrenching and painful,because if this is who we are... then we are doomed.
For this to just becoming an issue,most likely because of recent documentaries, and not the media ,whom should have been reporting this to the people,is terrible.Nieghbors and freinds and families have let each other get sick for so long and not report it and protest it is scary.Have we lost our humanity completely in this Country ? Are we just going to keep hurting each other ? Hurting other people all around the Globe ? Who is America ? What kind of people are we ?
".....Most states don't require monitoring of drinking water near the waste sites....."
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I find this incredible.
Obviously the EPA needs to get involved and develop a set of standards to be applied and ENFORCED nationally.
I will look into whether online comments can be submitted during the public comment periods connected with each of the seven hearings on this issue. Seriously, it's time to start standing up to these arrogant utility monoliths, making it clear that their irresponsible waste management protocols (sic) will no longer be tolerated.
A principal reason the EPA should be involved is that relying on local laws means that the localities that are company towns have to fight their companies, and the large populations away from the coal fields and processing can fund the electricity that funds the coal that pays the politicians that sacrifice the colliers.
Sadly, very little of the Federal government remains unpurchased. Glen Ford's recent article the other day was very apt. We have a fight coming. Federal controls are one of many great things to fight for, but we will have to do more than hold feet to the fire to get our corporate toadies from 0bama on down to pass anything similar.
Coal Ash can easily be mixed with cement, but the EPA makes it difficult and expensive. As usual, literal rather than cognative thinking.
This is already done , but it has been shown that this process releases mercury and other toxic chemicals into the enviroment.
Furthermore it has not been established as to whether the toxins inside of Cement made from coal ash will leech into the enviroment.
What you suggest is taking COAL ash , which should be labled an enviromental hazard but is at least contained in certain areas, and spreading it everywhere via the use of Cement.
How would you go about cleaning THAT up?
Lead was once in all our paints...Asbestos was once widely used in building materials as a fire retardant. The COSTS to clean that stuff up is orders of magnitude higher then any benefits gained.
I do not see the logic of your solution.
Its akin to making weapons out of the waste of The Nuclear industry,
"This is already done , but it has been shown that this process releases mercury and other toxic chemicals into the enviroment."
These amounts are miniscule. If its the report I think you are quoting, those samples wsere taken from one of the dirtiest plants around that scrubbed their chimneys once in a millinium. The EPA had an outcome in mind.
The reports on the process were incorrect. Parts were left out of the EPA's report. All tests showed (TXI)and Independent labs showed that there was little if any leeching into the soil. The ash is stabilized in the concrete. (these facts are not true for sub-standard cements)
It has been shown to be the best solution for disposal. Our EPA in the mid eighties in their wisdom decided it would be better to bury the stuff in the ground.
Its also produces a better, more workable concrete that is stronger.
You have and will have more Coal Ash. Better to bury it in the ground? What solution then?
I would point out that the amount of "leeching" from PVCS and the like now filling landfills was once seen as "miniscule". Do you know WHY that dust from the collpase of the WTC towers was so toxic to the people that breathe dit in?
It was because the hazards of breathing in those toxins was seen as Miniscule.
Concrete does not last forever. What happens with all those slabs of "fly ash Concrete" when it has to be torn up or torn down and turned into dust? What about people with jackhammers digging up concrete to do work? Put them in Hazmat suits?
Have you ever been to a buildings where they try and clean out old asbestos? The asbestos/lead paint I refer to is NOT a hazard until you renovate or demolish what was once built.
Spreading the pollution around so that people have to deal with it 30 years from now is NOT a soultion. Using it in something as common as "building materials" is a recipe for disaster.
The Solution?
Much like Nuclear waste.
Do not create it in the first place.
A trillion a year shifted to alternate clean energy reserach and construction rather then spent on blowing people up with DU Munitions using waste from Nuclear power plants wherein entire countries are contaminated makes a lot more SENSE to me.
"The Solution?
Much like Nuclear waste.
Do not create it in the first place."
Can't argue with that solution!
But in reality, it is being produced, so what is the answer? On top of that our idiotic President with his brainless moratorium I believe will engender MORE coal fired plants. Obviously more imported oil, but also encourages more coal use.
Are you sure you guys don't want him? We'll throw in both Bushes if that will help.
The Earth was once a toxic waste of chemicals that would not allow for any but the most primitive of life forms , yet it managed to flush itself of all of that in order to create the world we have today.
Man's problem is he wants to reverse all of those processes.
Our system demands processes off which enitities can generate "profits" under the "illusion" that something (in this case wealth/profits) can be generated without a cost.
I do not have all the scientific answers but I suggest rather then trying to master nature we act as a student and LEARN from nature. How is it a spider can create a fibre that is stronger then composite steel yet not use mass amounts of heat and energyy or generate all that toxic waste byproduct to do so?
For heavy metals as example, Zeolites are a naturally formed rock that can absorb and trap things like Mercury. The use of such comes with a COST an no perceived "benefit" other then a cleaner enviroment which is not a "Profit making Venture".
Thus no one wants to go there.
It is not that there are no solutions. It is everyone wants a "free ride" on the back of nature wherein they "Profit" and all the costs borne by the ecosystems.
"How is it a spider can create a fibre that is stronger then composite steel yet not use mass amounts of heat and energyy or generate all that toxic waste byproduct to do so?"
I absolutely LOVE your analogy.
Cost/benefit is exactly the point. Exactly where the trade offs are to be made and there are going to be trade offs, as you know3 I follow human nature rather than what we "should" be.
Thats a no on Barack and the Bushes then? I'll throw in an entire room of bookshelves.
Did I mention how grreat that analogy was?
No go on taking Bush/Obama. The system that has developed in the USA, that of the Plutcoracy rising to power, has all but guaranteed your leadership both now and in the foreseeable future , will come from the body of people that are most likely to be psychopathic and have little to no empathy for those people in need.
It is akin to the old inbred Hapsburgs and ruling Elite of Old Europe, wherein the mentally infirm inherited positions of power.
We have trouble enough as it is dealing with our own want to be "Ruling Class" without having to accept the very worst that the USA has to offer.
"No go on taking Bush/Obama."
"We have trouble enough as it is dealing with our own want to be "Ruling Class" without having to accept the very worst that the USA has to offer."
Darn it, I knew thats what you would say!
Remember what happened to the Hapsburgs.....I "think" we are in the process of changing the leadership you spoke of. We'll know in November.
It will be another hapsburg. A wager?
In 2014 you will be hoping for "change and renewal in the 2016 election"
this biennial farce of Change has to stop!
elections should be held EVERY morning.
start each day with fresh Hope.
If this election does not go as I believe it will, we can stop bothering with elections altogether!
I'll take it.
Obama was elected because of the utter rejection of GWB and the republicans, not because of his Hope and Change. Obama and his democrats are facing that same utter rejection. Already most people don't bother to listen to him or his synchophantic un-American henchmen in Congress.
The White middle class, Independents and seniors that elected Obama (a fact many miss) are long gone.
The change is coming in Congress and locally. People here are so angry they could spit. I have NEVER seen this before. There are some very large mistaken assumptions and terrible policy decisions being made by Progressives. We all know what we'd like things to be like, but its a terrible mistake to think that is reality.
If I'm right, the US is becoming Nationalistic, following the lead of China, India, Japan and Europe, etc. If we do, there will be many changes in the governance of our country.
WE will know in November. Keep an eye on who is winning the primaries. Take a look at Chris Christy in NJ, he or someone like him could walk into the Presidency in 2012.
Obama and the democrats are dead meat for at least a decade. Probably more. The chance for liberal policies have been destroyed by these goobers in their rush to arrogance. Thats why you see me suggesting small steps, new strategy, getting rid of the useless race/bigot/ fill in the blank phobia card. That stuff is not working. I sometimes wonder if anyone pays attention to what is really going on.
But just a couple of more months and I'll be right or wrong. If wrong...Victoria here we come!
"If I'm right, the US is becoming Nationalistic..."
it has always been such, mm.
(Victoria is a nice choice.)
Not for the last 30 years or so, look at our trade and tax policies, they prove that it has not been so.
"(Victoria is a nice choice.)"
It is, isn't it! :)
Regardless of what is, or needs to be, mandated with respect to coal ash handling and storage, burning coal isn't going to be eliminated overnight.
What can be done in a relatively short period of time is to add an Atmospheric Vortex Engine "bottoming cycle" to the most efficient coal-electric plants to maintain constant electrical production while REDUCING the coal burn rate by as much as a third.
Atmospheric Vortex Engines "feast" on the waste heat (60%) that is not converted into electricity by the "steam cycle", converting up to 25% of this into more power, while reducing "thermal pollution" that would otherwise be produced, often injected into water-ways.
Older, inefficient coal-fired plants could be closed entirely, by building AVEs in a "stand-alone" configuration (using other waste-heat sources) to take up the slack.
Read about these options at http://vortexengine.ca
Please attend an EPA hearing nearest to you!Each person that shows up represents 100's of concerned citizens that could not make it. Testify at the hearing. Usually this involves speaking for 3 minutes, on record, to the EPA official. Your rap can be personal,ie. health problems,future generations etc.When we can fill these hearings, the impact will be felt! If you cannot make it, please submit comments. Sometimes it seems like a waste of time to be civic minded, but I get over it! FEEL GOOD, FEEL STRONG!!